Laboratory Measurements of Interplanetary Dust Particles and the Origin of Crystalline Silicates in Our Solar System and Other Protostellar Disks

Volume:

324, Debris Disks and the Formation of Planets: A Symposium in Memory of Fred Gillett

Page:

268

Authors:

Molster, F.J.; Bradley, J.P.; Sitko, M.L.; Nuth, J.A., III

Abstract:

Laboratory measurements of the spectral characteristics of interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) of presumed cometary origin provide a direct method for studying the mineralogy of the early solar system, and by inference other protostellar disks. Some IDPs contain crystalline silicates whose spectral features resemble those seen in some solar system comets and protostellar disks. Such crystalline material is not evident in the interstellar medium, and requires that the dust grains undergo heating to over 850 K in order to anneal them to the degree observed in comets and protostellar disks. The existence of annealed dust grains in the pristine volatile material of comets may require large-scale transport in the solar system. Presumably such transport systems are ubiquitous in other protostellar disks as well.